


Whirlwind

by TeapotFiction



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Diary/Journal, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, One Shot, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 23:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10954860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeapotFiction/pseuds/TeapotFiction
Summary: Some bughead fluff - set after episode 6. What is going though the heads of Betty and Jughead after everything that happens that day?





	Whirlwind

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually meant to be a one-shot about Betty and Jughead meeting before school the following day and how they interact, but I got a bit carried away with all of the feelings... I'm not sure I like how it turned out, but I thought I'd post it anyway

It had been a whirlwind kind of day.

 

Betty said goodbye to Jughead and walked down the street she knew so well, reflecting on everything that had changed since she left that morning. Her house was dark, her parents asleep. She holds her breath as she puts her key in the latch, trying to match the silence of the street, and lets herself down. She shuts the door as gently as she can, and creeps up to her bedroom. On her way up she spots a bottle of wine, and hears the gentle snores of her father, who is clearly unaffected by the turbulence of the day.

 

It’s late, but she’s not in the mood for sleep. Jughead had offered to stay with her longer, but she could see him fighting a yawn as he did so, so she’d lied and said she was tired too.

 

Instinctively, she picked up her diary and wrote the date. ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get writing’ she mutters, gritting her teeth. But then she sits the and stares at the blank page wondering how she is meant to sum up the day in a couple of paragraphs.

 

_Today I learnt many things. First: Polly’s pregnant._

 

That seemed as good a starting point as any. But how could she describe the place that she was being held? The cold, stark walls, the piercing eyes of the nuns, the total lockdown of those kept there. The lies her parents had told.

 

It was too much.

 

She took a deep breath, and started to write, finding that the words just tumbled out. Inelegant, unrefined, but out, on the page and preserved for posterity.

 

_Mom and Dad have sent her away because they don’t want people to know. Which brings me on to the second thing I learnt today. My parents are crazy. Completely crazy. Who locks away their daughter? Who thinks that pregnancy is such a shameful secret that they pay nuns to keep her away? Nuns who are paid more, no doubt, to tip them off whenever Polly gets visitors._

 

_Who doesn’t tell their daughter that her boyfriend – the father of her baby – has died? Has been murdered, even. If I’d have known… I stumbled, I couldn’t find the words. She had to read my expression. That shouldn’t have been how she found out – weeks after everyone else did, in a home for disturbed youths, with under the gaze of the watchful nuns. This isn’t the way any of it should be happening._

 

_I learnt that Jason knew about the baby, that he had a plan to escape his parents – also crazy – and run away with Polly to start a new life as a family. They’ve had that future stolen from them. I know the Blossoms, and apparently the Coopers, are bone fide crazy, but was running away the only option? Was there something else?_

 

_There are the things that I should have known. Like my sister never would have tried to hurt herself. And she’d never have wanted me to stay away. And that of course my parents would have wanted to cover up a scandal. Because reputation is so important… obviously. Finding the car was the proof I didn’t even need that she was telling the truth._

 

_And then there are the things I don’t know. Like where Polly is now. Is she safe? Warm? Is the baby okay? Will she be okay without Jason? Will my parents finally come round and support her? Will anything ever be the same?_

 

_I do know the answer to that one. I wish I didn’t._

 

Writing had been cathartic. She was glad of her journal. Normally private, assuming Alice Cooper didn’t go snooping again, and free from the editor’s scribbles, it was the one place she could let out all her secrets.

 

Speaking of secrets, there was something else she needed to add to today’s entry. This was trickier to write about for some reason. Perhaps because it was more uncertain. Betty Cooper can be sure of many things, but after reading Archie so wrong at the start of the year, does she want to commit the next bit to paper?

 

But of course she must. What is a journalist if they won’t write about the things that are really happening?

 

_And then there’s Jughead. It seems so crazy to be writing about boys when everything else is going on.  Jughead kissed me today. Woah. That’s something I thought I’d never write._

 

She pauses for a while. Suddenly she is feeling self-conscious. Perhaps it’s because she can’t be sure that her diary is really private any more.

 

For a moment she contemplates finding another notebook, or turning to her computer so she can ensure her words are kept secret. But then she decides that she’s being silly. She just needs a better hiding place in future.

 

_Jughead._

 

_I didn’t see it coming. I’ve been too wrapped up in Archie, or as I should say, my made up dream version of Archie. The play where we stop just being neighbours and I am the girl next door that he falls in love with. But that was just a stupid, schoolgirl fantasy. Archie’s never been the one for me. But is Jughead?_

 

_Maybe._

 

_He’s the one who’s been there for me recently. He seems to understand things without me having to spell it out for him. He’s always had a sardonic sense of humour, but recently there’s been a kindness I didn’t think I’d see from him._

 

_Some Nancy Drew I am. I’ve known Jughead forever, and he caught me totally unawares._

 

‘So Betty Cooper’ she whispers to herself ‘What do you think about this?’

 

_It should have been too weird. Awkward. Off Limits. Gross. All of those things._

 

_But it wasn’t. It was the most natural thing in the world.  And despite everything, it’s all I can think about. Jughead. Who knew? But I’m so glad._

 

She put down her pen, actively stopping herself from writing down any of her worries (‘What is he feeling? Does he want this to be something, or was it just a kiss? What do we do now? How should I act around him?’) – she doesn’t want to torment herself with any more unansweables.

 

It had been a long day and by rights she should have been asleep hours ago, but her mind is racing - flitting between thoughts of Polly and Jughead.

 

She could write a whole book on all the things she doesn’t know. But what would be the point? Tomorrow is a new day, there are new opportunities to find her sister, to put things right, to make sure she’s okay.

 

It’s a new day too, to explore the new possibilities with Jughead. It might have only been one kiss, but she feels certain he will be there to navigate the stormy waters ahead. His steadying presence has been one she’s come to rely on over the last few days.

 

She lay awake for a very long time.

 

\----

 

Jughead watched the blonde girl as she walked the last few metres to her house. He knew she didn’t need him, but he couldn’t help but feel very protective of her. He’d feel protective over her even if she hadn’t been through all she had over the last few days.

 

He couldn’t remember when he’d started feeling like this about her. He’d not had that thunderbolt moment that you get in films. It’d been a growing feeling, but one that he’d tried to squash, knowing it could never happen. She’d always been in love with Archie, and blind to him.

 

She was too good for Archie – well, she was too good for him too – but Archie had been an idiot, simultaneously ignoring her while also dangling enough hope to be cruel. He’d watched it all, at first sympathetically, but more recently, he’d felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach every time he’d seen her look at Archie _that way._  

 

He had hoped that Archie disappearing over the summer might have given her the chance to get over him, but she just seemed all the more determined to make him realise that she was the perfect girl next door. She’d been so intent that she’d not even noticed that Archie had completely ignored and abandoned her because something rather more obvious had come his way.

 

And so he’d continued to keep his distance, hoping after hope that one day she’d come to her senses and realise she was worth so much more. And maybe that wouldn’t be him, but it certainly wasn’t Archie.

 

But then one day, she asked him to help with the Blue and Gold, and he’d had just the faintest glimmer of hope, that maybe one day...

 

He smiled to himself. Betty Cooper.

 

As he watches her disappear into the dark house, he makes his own way back. She doesn’t know it yet, but Betty Cooper is fast becoming the most important part of his world. Not that he has much else to be important. His mom and Jellybean gone, his dad in no fit state to parent, and the drive in dismantled. What else is there?

 

He walks alone from some time, content to be with his thoughts. He is, after all, a loner by inclination. Everything that happened with his dad this summer has taught him that he can only rely on himself. Everyone else lets you down in the end.

 

If he were to be truthful with himself, he’d realise that he’s being too harsh on Archie. That his feelings are tinged with guilt because Archie and Betty are endgame. But right now, he’s so focussed on Betty, and making sure that she’s alright that he doesn’t have time to dwell too much on anything else.

 

After a while, he looks around to make sure there’s nobody else in sight. Although who would be out so late if they had a choice? Satisfied he’s alone, he turns down the path and towards the school building, praying that the dozey janitor had, once again, forgotten to lock the side door.

 

He’s in luck. Twisting the handle he slips into the dark corridor and makes his way to his makeshift home. A cupboard. How very Harry Potter of him, he thinks sarcastically. Of all the films his life could be enacting, it’d have to be that wouldn’t it? He dreads to think what Betty would say if she realised he was a little less _Rebel Without A Cause_ and a little more _The Boy Who Lived._

 

Would she judge him? That was something he was not prepared to put to the test right now. He crawls into his sleeping bag, setting his alarm early so that he won’t be discovered. It’s cold in the cupboard, there are spiders around – and no doubt mice too. But despite this he is smiling because he kissed Betty Cooper and she smiled at him like he was … well, someone else.

 

In the morning there’s a lot to work out. How to tell Archie, how to find Polly, how to negotiate these completely unknown territories with Betty… How to overcome his dreaded fear of Mrs Cooper… where he can live... Not to mention everything with the Blossoms.

 

But tonight is the night that he finally kissed the girl, and tonight that is enough for him. Despite everything that has happened, he falls asleep content.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I am thinking of moving away from these one-shots and doing a longer piece, possibly AU, with Betty/Jughead, more of a slow burn piece. Thoughts? I'm a bit disappointed with this one, so want to get a few more characters and round them off a bit. 
> 
> Also completely ran out of time to edit this so be gentle!


End file.
